The history of a Pannonian oak woodland – palaeoecological evidence from south-eastern Slovakia

Abstract

The history and continuity of lowland woodlands in Central Europe is closely connected with human activities. We studied a small wetland situated directly in a low-elevation oak-dominated woodland to evaluate the history and impact of humans on an oak woodland in south-eastern Slovakia. We used different proxies to obtain evidence of woodland history spanning at least 8,500 years. Pollen, diatom and physical analysis, including micromorphology, were used to study infill sediments and to determine the processes causing the influx of material into the wetland basin from its surroundings. The oak-dominated woodland community occurred throughout the Holocene, but its detailed history is impossible to trace because of reverse chronology caused by mixing of deposits. The stability of the oak woodland was determined by anthropogenic disturbances such as grazing. These disturbances are indicated by pollen taxa, signals of soil erosion in the deposits, and local development of the wetland that acted as drinking and hemp retting basin. The recent decline of human pressure has led to gradual changes in the species composition of the wetland itself (shrub encroachment) and of understory of the surrounding oak woodlands.